The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-06-23
Another semI-centennIaI.

While the semi-centennial of the accession
OF Queen Victoria to the throne of Great
Britain has been celebrated this week with
so much splendor and the whole civilized
world has been laid under tribute for senti-
ments of respect, another semi-centennial
has been observed here in America with a
quietness and absence of ostentation in re-
markable contrast to the ceremonies across
the waters. The quiet exercises at the fifty
first commencement of Mount Holyoke Fe-
male Seminary, are ayery modest observance
to be mentioned in connection with the pomp
and pageantry which ushers in the fifty-irst
year Of the reign of Queen Victoria. Yet
calm reflection may so connect the two
events that fancy shall hesitate to ascribe to
to the one more interest than to the other.
queen Vlctorla's career is remarkable IL
lustration Of the ability Of woman to main
tain herself with credit in position requir-
Ing the tact and executive abilities which.
according to the ideas of fifty years ago.
1t was the especial function of man to exer
else. When Queen Victoria assembled the
throne the training of woman in both Ameri-
ca and England tended to make her depend
ent rather than independent. For fifty years
the able conduct of the Queen has been a
continuing example of the fallacy of the idea
underlying that training, and has undoubt-
eddy been very potent factor in working
the changes for the better that have been
brought about by a different system of edu
cation for women and by opening to them
new avenues of employment. American
women have even surpassed their English
sisters in their independence and abilitysto
think and act for themselves. But the
change in America, though great. is
very recent Almost the entire reyolu-
ton is included within the time that
Mount Holyoke Seminary has been at work.
When scores of seminaries and high schools
OF established name and assured future are
every year graduating young ladies with ed
locations equal to or superior to the educa-
tions of their brothers; when Vassar
Wellesley, Smith and other female colleges
are yearly sending out graduates with train
ing and culture equal to the training and cul-
ture given to the young men of Harvard and
Yale; when in Harvard, Yale and Column
bla young women are competing with the
young men on their own grounds, it is diff
cult 70 realize that there ever was an Ameri-
ca such as that of which Harriet Martineau
wrote, such as that which existed when
Mount Holyoke Seminary was founded. In
1887 there were several schools for young la
dies in New England and in New York state
which were satisfactory to families of
wealth, but they depended for their existence
upon the personality of the teachers or unon
the patronage of few families, whose snn-
port was necessarily limited to the wears
during which they had need for such schools
None of them survived the period Of their
early popularity. Mount Holyoke is the pi
oneer female college Of this country, in the
sense that it was the first school for girls
founded on basis that would enable pa
rents Of moderate means to give their daugh-
tiers an education that would be more thor
ough than they could obtain at the common
schools, and would be at the same time of
more practical use than that obtanable at
the special and private school for girls.
Since then other institutions have gone far